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Google: Inside Search

6 Ways SEO Will Change in 2013SitePointConsidering the shifts in SEO survival, 2012 has been quite an eventful year. There have been several important updates that have changed the search scene altogether. A massive crackdown on spam sites through the EMD updates was not the only ...

What Kept China's Search Engines Busy in 2012New York Times (blog)Baidu, the leading search engine on the mainland, has compiled two Top 10 lists — the most-searched terms online this year, and the “fastest rising” words or phrases, those that raced suddenly from mild interest among netizens to a relatively large ...New York Times (blog)

Analysis: Amazon, Google on collision course in 2013 - Chicago Tribune: "Amazon's fledgling ad business is still a fraction of Google's, with Robert W. Baird & Co. estimating Amazon is on track to generate about $500 million in annual advertising revenue - tiny, given it recorded $48 billion of overall revenue in 2011. By contrast, 96 percent of Google's $38 billion in 2011 sales came from advertising. . . Amazon establishes itself as a starting point for consumers looking to buy something on the Web.
Research firm Forrester reported that 30 percent of U.S. online shoppers in the third quarter began researching their purchase on Amazon.com, compared with 13 percent who started on a search engine such as Google - a reversal from two years earlier when search engines were more popular starting points.
Amazon now sells ads that show up to the side of product search results on its website. . . ."

Daily Dot | YouTube strips Universal and Sony of 2 billion fake views: " . . . Sony/BMG was the second largest sufferer, dropping more than 850 million views in one day, bringing its total number of views to a mere 2.3 million. RCA, which got off scot free by comparison, dipped 159 million views. Its tally now sits more modestly at 120 million views. In addition, each label's YouTube archives are now surprisingly thin. UMG, which had long held a heavy hand in YouTube operations, now only boasts five videos on its YouTube channel, none of which are actual songs—and none of which last more than 1:23. Sony's page, by comparison, is currently empty. The company did not respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment. . . Google's takedown of these major music channels came on the same day that hundreds of YouTubers took to Google forums and their own YouTube channels to inform their peers that they'd been subject to a series of video takedowns for violations of YouTube's Terms of Service (TOS). Some speculated that the widespread video takedowns were caused by a technical error, but YouTubeconfirmed that the users violated TOS item 4, Section H, which bans automated methods of inflating view counts. "This was not a bug or a security breach. This was an enforcement of our viewcount policy," wrote a Google representative on the forums. The apparent crackdown on fake views became a major talking point Wednesday on Black Hat World, a forum where users trade tips about unethical search engine optimization tactics. The thread's first post alluded to a friend of the poster who "sells likes" and was recently told by four different customers that their videos "got deleted due to TOS violation.". . ."

The “Do”s and “Don’t”s of SEO | lonelybrand: ". . . Keyword density could easily be the death of your content marketing strategy. Although most people and brands have abandoned this technique, I still occasionally stumble across a keyword density offender. What keyword density lovers fail to realize is not only does it make the content difficult to read, it makes the reader doubt the authority and expertise of the writer. Rather than jamming as many instances of a keyword or keyword phrase that you can in hopes of ranking higher, focus on creating natural sounding, informative and authoritative content focused around that keyword topic. Writing for search engines is so five years ago. Instead, create content with your target audience in mind — content that appeals to them in its tone, presentation and subject matter (not just keyword count). A search engine can’t really recognize your expertise, but a reader (a potential customer!) can, and will return to you regularly once that level of trust is established. . . ."

Google to tweak practices to end search probe - Elizabeth Wasserman - POLITICO.com: "Federal regulators may end a two-year antitrust probe of Google’s search business by letting the company make voluntary changes, such as limiting use of restaurant and travel reviews from other websites and letting search ad campaigns be easily ported to rival search services, two sources with knowledge of the case told POLITICO. The FTC is also preparing to enter into a settlement with Google on a related case over how the company uses its acquired stockpile of patents against competitors, as POLITICO reported last week. Under the patent agreement, Google will curtail using key patents it picked up when it purchased Motorola Mobility to block competitors infringing those patents from getting their products to the market, although there are exceptions, sources said. . . . "

Microsoft apparently is getting desperate--willing to stoop to anything--in other words, if you can't compete then hire a "brawler"--

Microsoft Battles Google by Hiring Political Brawler Mark Penn - NYTimes.com: " . . . “Google should be prepared for everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them,” said a former colleague who worked closely with Mr. Penn in politics and spoke on condition of anonymity. “Actually, they should be prepared for the kitchen sink to be thrown at them, too.”
Hiring Mr. Penn demonstrates how seriously Microsoft is taking this fight, said Michael A. Cusumano, a business professor at M.I.T. who co-wrote a book about Microsoft’s browser war.
“They’re pulling out all the stops to do whatever they can to halt Google’s advance, just as their competition did to them,” Professor Cusumano said. “I suppose that if Microsoft can actually put a doubt in people’s mind that Google isn’t unbiased and has become some kind of evil empire, they might very well get results.”. . . "

The Google Homepage Is Now Built into Chrome – Screenshots - Softpedia: "Google is making it official, search engines are coming to the new tab page. The only surprise is that it's not just Google, the team devised a new API which should enable any search engine to integrate with the Chrome new tab page to any degree it wants."We’re going to begin testing variations of Chrome’s New Tab page (NTP) in which a user’s default search provider will be able to add a search box or otherwise customize the NTP," Google explained. . . .

Mona Elesseily: How to Keep Your Website Traffic Healthy: " Although the search algorithms aren't able to perfectly reward high value sites yet, they're working on it -- and when they do get their ranking factors in order, your site will be at the front of the line.
Priority #3 -- Diversify Your Traffic Sources
As you focus on building up your content, put some effort into diversifying your traffic sources as well.
One method in particular that all webmasters could stand to invest more heavily in is social networking traffic. By building a presence on these sites, you establish streams of inbound traffic that continue to exist even if your site takes a hit in the natural search results due to algorithm changes. Email marketing lists are also a good hedge against a hit in natural search results. Lists can be used to sell products and services directly to email subscribers.
Priority #4 -- Look "Natural"
In the past, SEOs could get away with following a specific list of on-page optimization best practices that were designed to give sites the best possible chances of ranking well in the natural search results."

Google+ Communities for Merchants - 'Net Features - Website Magazine: "Merchants tend to put the majority of their social resources into sites like Facebook or Twitter, but it might be time to shift some of that social focus to Google+. This is because having a profile on Google’s emerging social network makes a brand more visible in the search results. In fact, a study from digital marketing and analytics provider Fathom reveals that only 24 percent of the brands on Millward Brown's 2012 BrandZ list actually triggered a Knowledge Graph entry when searched for on Google, and the information for 92 percent of those entries came directly from Google+."

Google Forces Raven Tools to Kill Rank Tracking Tool - Search Engine Watch (#SEW): "Google’s terms of service are clear: Any product or product feature that collects scraped data or uses scraped data acquired from another source is not allowed. The penalty? Revocation of access to the AdWords API.
But why enforce the rules now, when the terms of service have been clear about scraped data for years? Google has huge expenses for its data centers, and large volumes of automated queries only increase those expenses. But is Google really just trying to cut costs, or is there a larger agenda?
What Does the Future Hold?
Is Google ramping up its enforcement of its terms of service? If so, why now? Is this Google’s latest battle in its war against SEO professionals? Will Google continue to enforce its terms of service and threaten to revoke API access from other, similar service providers like MYSEOTool and AuthorityLabs? Will SEO tool providers follow suit with Market Samurai and switch to Bing as a data source?
Right now, the questions are more abundant than the answers, but one thing is clear: Google is flexing its muscle, and the SEO industry is on notice."

Google’s Searches for UnGoogleable Information to Make Mobile Search Smarter | MIT Technology Review: " . . . Why It Matters - Google could extend its reach by finding ways to deliver information that people don’t currently use a search engine to find. For three days last month, at eight randomly chosen times a day, my phone buzzed and Google asked me: “What did you want to know recently?” The answers I provided were part of an experiment involving me and about 150 other people. It was designed to help the world’s biggest search company understand how it can deliver information to users that they’d never have thought to search for online. Billions of Google searches are made every day—for all kinds of things—but we still look elsewhere for certain types of information, and the company wants to know what those things are. “Maybe [these users are] asking a friend, or they have to look up a manual to put together their Ikea furniture,” says Jon Wiley, lead user experience designer for Google search. Wiley helped lead the research exercise, known as the Daily Information Needs Study. If Google is to achieve its stated mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible,” says Wiley, it must find out about those hidden needs and learn how to serve them. And he says experience sampling—bugging people to share what they want to know right now, whether they took action on it or not—is the best way to do it. “Doing that on a mobile device is a relatively new technology, and it’s getting us better information that we really haven’t had in the past,” he says. . . . "

If you didn't catch this article (excerpt below) it is well worth a complete read--if for nothing else to point out how imperfect the Google search engine still is--

How PRWeb Helps Distribute Crap Into Google & News Sites: "There’s so much to love in this release. My favorite part is probably the pullout quote, “Levitra Buy Viagra.” But also, apparently the online pharmacy is both “trustworthy” and able to sell prescription drugs without customers needing a prescription. I guess that’s because it’s a “licensed and legal European” pharmacy, which is pretty clear given that big American flag and “American quality” logo in the press release image, along with a Canadian maple leaf and the words “Canadian Online Pharmacy.” I have no reason to doubt all of this, to doubt the claims at all, because as you can see from the PRWeb statement, this release was reviewed to ensure it had the right “integrity” that PRWeb apparently feels it needs to maintain with its service. Distribution Time! Once the release was posted, it was then distributed to a range of outlets that PRWeb helpfully itemizes, including Google News and, if you paid extra, through the Associated Press and thus to news outlets like the New York Times to The Oregonian:"

Google search outside the US - Google Groups: "If you search from google.co.uk, the initial results pages will default to global. There might appear to be a preponderance of US content, but this probably reflects the volume of US content on the global web, rather than any bias on Google's part.. . . don't forget that ".com" domain names can be registered in any country, so the presence of .com results doesn't necessarily indicate US content. In fact, any bias in the search algorithm would take into account your location, either as detected by Google from your IP address, or as recorded by you in Search Settings. If you want to exclude global content, you have the option to filter only "Pages from the UK". . . . it would be nice to set local results as default from the search home page. However, there are a couple of workarounds which might help. Once you have performed a search from google.co.uk and selected "Pages from the UK", bookmark the results page and then always search from there rather than from the search home page. Alternatively, bookmark https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB for your searching."

Great Search Engine Optimization Tools | Business 2 Community: "If you have a website online that is simple and attractive, then there are very minute chances that it will attract the high traffic and most importantly help you to make money online. It is important that a best website must have more excellent features than just the flashy or visual appeal. When a site is in on the World Wide Web, then there is a very high chance that it may get tough competition from the various other sites already present. The bad ranking of your website means that it has no place in an Internet World. As a business owner, if you are seriously looking to promote your website online, then with the help of the search engine optimization tools you can achieve success and create a robust presence on the Internet. . . . read more here"

Google-FTC settlement may be in the works
Washington Post
Google and federal officials are discussing a deal that would end nearly two years of investigation into claims of monopolistic behavior by the company without addressing the most serious charge — that it intentionally manipulates search results to ...

Microsoft: Don't Get 'Scroogled' By Google Search Results
ReadWriteWeb
Share on: Microsoft: Don't Get 'Scroogled' By Google Search Results. On Wednesday, Microsoft began running a national ad campaign warning users to avoid being “Scroogled” by Google search results that have been influenced.
ReadWriteWeb

Google opposes German push for search engines to pay newspapers
Los Angeles Times
Google has come out swinging against German legislation that would require searchengines to pay for using snippets of newspaper articles, photographs and other media content. German lawmakers are slated to debate the legislation Thursday, one in a ...

Microsoft ads deride Google as bad place to shop
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is trying to skewer Google as a lousy holiday shopping guide in its latest attempt to divert more traffic to its Bing search engine. The attack started Wednesday with a marketing campaign focused on a recent change in ...

Casey Anthony movie to debut in January
KFDA
... on the day she was last seen alive. The Florida sheriff's office that investigated the disappearance of Casey Anthony's 2-year-old daughter overlooked evidence that someone in their home did a Google search for "fool-proof" suffocation methods on the.

Google to create job search community for veterans
Stars and Stripes (blog)
WASHINGTON - With high unemployment among veterans and a million servicemembers expected to leave the military in the next five years, efforts abound to help them make the transition to civilian life. So many efforts, in fact, it's a muddy mess of ...

Kim Kardashian is not number one in Google search
Film Industry Network (blog)
Bing have revealed that Kim Kardashian was the most searched celebrity of 2012 but Justin Bieber still ranks ahead of her in Google search. Google accounts for a majority of searches on the web each day, although Bing have innovated their search engine ...

Google Voice Search For iPhone Commercial: How Accurate Is It ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Back in August, when Google announced improvements to its voice search capabilities on Android and iOS, it released a slick little commercial showing all of the answers iPhone users could now expect its Google search app to return to them with a simple touch of a button and a few vibrations of the old vocal chords: ... Google Voice Searchand Google Instant | SEO Consulting | Learn SEO | SEO Outsourcing | Internet Marketing ...
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed

Curtain Rises On Act 3 Of Google Antitrust Drama As Larry Page ...
By Greg Sterling
One issue that appears to have faded somewhat is the notion of “search bias”: Google favoring its “own results” over third party services. This is the principal claim of many Google .... seo-2012-featured. 2012 Year In Review: Important Shifts In Google SEO.google-ftc-featured. Report: FTC Likely To Abandon “Vertical Search” Antitrust Claims Against Google. facebook-yahoo-search-featured. A Yahoo-Facebook SearchPartnership? Reality Check Time! Show Previous Story Show ...
Search Engine Land: News & Info...

Google Type uses image search to generate fonts | Crave - CNET: "Despite the name, Google Type isn't a real Google product. The site generates fonts based on Google image search, hence the name. You type in words, the site digs through image search and regenerates your text using image versions of each letter. This is all based on an interesting quirk of Google's image search. If you type in a single letter and search images, Google gives you a lovely collection of image representations for that letter. For example, plug in "Y," and you may see the "Y" from "Yahoo," an illustration of a guy with his arms up in a "Y" shape, and a hand making the hang-loose sign. Any of these could pop up in Google Type. . . "